Happy 100th
7th July 2007
From just about every newspaper in America:
ON THIS DAY IN 1907 — Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein is born. He’s a four-time winner of the Hugo Award for best SF novel of the year and one of the giant figures in the history of the genre.
My friends at The Heinlein Society* Heinlein fans** are throwing one Hell of a birthday bash in Kansas City. Because I have to work, I can’t go. I’m not as active a following of Heinlein fandom as I once was. The job throws a kink into my social calender, and the blog soaks up a tremendous amount of time.
But I never forgot the important role the works of Robert A. Heinlein played in shaping my opinions. As I’ve written about before, I grew up in a family of Kennedy Democrats. My grandmother was a Kennedy delegate in 1960, for crying out loud. My youthful politics were liberal. I’ve stood there like an idiot with signs proclaiming that we ought to just give peace a chance.
Heinlein would have wanted to slap me upside the head and tell me to wake up. In a way, he did just that. My first Heinlein book was “Friday.” I didn’t buy it because I was impressed with all the glowing reviews of this and other Heinlein works. I bought it because the cover showed a busty blonde chick wearing a blue jump suit unbuttoned down to there. I was in junior high at the time, and the sexy passes left me flustered. The heady political commentary no doubt festered in the back of my brain.
You see, that’s how insidious Heinlein is. You read his stuff becauseit’s so damn much fun — all that violence and action — and you end up being taught tot hink for yourself. I remained a liberal Democrat for the next 15 years or so, but in retrospect, I have to admit there was always a little tinkle, a buzz, really, that was telling me that people really ought to be more self-reliant, and that I ought to not be supporting candidates who want to take away folks guns.
As much as Heinlein put the ideas in my head, it took having to work for a living for a few years that really soured me on the Democratic Party. The final straw came during the 1988 impeachment hearings for Bill Clinton, when members of the party I supported (including the years I worked as a reporter) fawned all over a man who was as far from the Heinlein heroes I respected as a man could get. Feh.
Still I knew I wasn’t a Republican or a conservative.
I came across a passage describing Heinlein as “libertarian,” so I visited a few Libertarian Party Web sites and decided I found a home. I left THAT home after 2001 when I heard LP standard bearer Harry Browne blame the United States for causing the terrorists to attack us. Heinlein would have slapped Browne silly - figuratively speaking, of course. Whether or not a more libertarian-minded foreign policy prior to Sept. 11, 2001, would have gotten the terrorists mad at us or not is debatable, but there’s no debate in my mind on what should have happened after Sept. 11, 2001. And it isn’t sitting around hoping that they don’t get mad at us again. “Starship Troopers” told us what Heinlein would have thought about that idea.
So, Heinlein left me a man without a political party to call my own. Which is where any person with a working brain ought to be.
So, Happy Birthday, RAH. Thanks for the presents.
*As commenter Audry Gifford noted, the bash was organized by autonomous group, although no doubt most are members of the Society.
** I know for a fact that several members of THS were deeply involved in centennial celebration activities. I know because before I essentially gave up Heinlein related activities due to lack of time, etc., I attended one or two online planning sessions.
[tags]heinlein,robert a heinlein[/tags]
Bill Dennis
Mike
July 7th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
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July 8th, 2007 at 2:27 am
Got here form Billy’s link.
Was introduced to The Master in a science fiction literature class in high school. Stranger in a Strange Land of all books was what we read. A classmate named David and I would argue with the teacher over what she claimed Heinlein meant by this or that and whatever we decided to argue he meant. She didn’t have a chance. And we barely passed because we refused to regurgitate her lectures onto paper. David quickly became my best friend and still is.
David had read most of his books and passed a few copies to me. “Lazurus Long” became a mentor of sorts for me thru high school and college like Kerouac and Dylan for other folks. Certainly got me prepared for life well enough.
Now I go a couple years and then see Friday or Have Spacesuit or Time Enough for Love or Job or whatever on my shelf and pull one down. Get re-centered.
100 years… Seemed to me the man had already lived that twice that long.
Thanks for reminding me.
July 9th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Hi - just to clarify
The Heinlein Society was not the group that produced the Centennial. The Centennial Celebration was the project of a different group formed just for that purpose. Speakers included Peter Diamondis (from the X-prize), Brian Binnie (who flew Spaceship One), Fred Pohl, the head of Nasa, Allen Steele, John Scalzi, and many others.
I think it was an excellent event and a worthy celebration of such a great author and his works that were so inspiring for so many people.
Audrey
July 18th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Hello —
I don’t think you could characterize those who organized the Centennial as THS members.
To our sorrow, only one announcement about the Centennial even went out to THS members via THS channels. That makes me sad, because it was a major, memorable event, and so many THS members missed it. There will be video available later, but being there was energizing, inspiring, and unforgettable.
Click on the link and read more.
Maybe in 2107 — in Luna City — THS will join the effort.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Partial correction noted, but no, most of the organizers had nothing at all to do with THS.
It’s sad that even after two years of clearly promoting the event for what it was, the assumption is that it was a THS affair in one way or another. Believe me, nothing could be further from the truth.
If you’re going to read these comments and correct your post, at least correct it correctly - if you aren’t going to credit those who did put on the event, at least don’t credit the wrong and entirely undeserving group.
July 18th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Yes, it’s entirely misleading and insulting to both groups to characterize this as a Heinlein Society event.
While they later returned to a neutral position, at the outset the Society officially opposed this event; see their newsletter editorials. The mailing to their members which went out a few months before the event was the only official Society involvement in its production.
The distinction may not appear important to some, but there are many people for whom it makes a great deal of difference.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I’ve long been a fan of Heinlein and have wondered about The Heinlein Society and other groups dedicated to him.
If the above comments are any indication, I am probably better off never having investigated or (gasp!) joined any of these groups. I’ve been much better off re-reading RAH’s books and chatting with other fans on the web.
That being said, I love your site. Glad to see you’re back at it.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:33 am
I’ve made a generic correction to the post. I didn’t attend, and if I did, I wouldn’t have bothered to keep a scorecard. I hope everyone had a good time.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
MI picked up my first R.A.H book as a boy, at the behest of my father.
Since I have read all but a few of his works, and I have never felt as though I “belonged” to a political party. Mankind must be allowed to have a say in the choices that he takes.
A Free Man will always make those choices on his own.
Not his government.